Hidden Snipers Around The Flag (Part 4)

The Vietnam Village Course

The next course played to my belief was one of the best and probably my favorite. Looking picture perfect to an Asian village in the Vietnam war, there were a couple of huts with straw tops to which each side of the field had one major hut. Behind these large huts and a couple of meters down the forest track were the two flags, one on each side. The aim of the game is monotonous but the action is far from repetitive.

With a small gap running upon the higher portion of the playing field and a relatively open field for plucking out players. I thought this was my favorite course. Not only this but the fun that Shawn, Jett and myself had together was awesome. Starting to run out of bullets, we decided we were going to take it easy for a while and listen to our earlier instincts of only shooting when there was a target, not at walls.

Hut To Hut With Jett

The first charge began from the bottom village and when the whistles sounded I made my journey to a hut on the left with Jett. As per usual, rapid fire was spreading upon the wooden walls of the little hut we were crawling into. Adamant through all the confusion and noise, it was coming to the point of the day where people’s gun’s would frequently jam or run out of gas. I found that when someone runs out of gas the gun starts to sound like an automatic machine gun.

When first I heard this I gasped thinking “Fuck, what package did he buy, I want it”. Unfortunately, he was shooting rapidly but there was just nothing coming out, it sounded sick though. Anyway, apart from all this noise, I had Jett fire away some cover shots as I made my way to the hut a couple of steps to the left and up the hill. Feeling a sense of triumph upon jumping up and leaping into the next hut, Jett yelled out a huge roar of accomplishment.

Within seconds, Jett faced a possible catastrophe as the lid that holds all the pellets in his gun’s canister flipped open. Usually held down with rubber band tied around the waist, it kept flipping off and each time Jett looked dangerous it would spring open and allow the pellets to fall out, a waste. Seeing that Jett was in strife and having a guy shooting at Jett in the hut across from mine, I decided to give Jett a helping hand.

Crawling right around my hut in direct line of fire, I crept around the hut with the enemy inside hoping that he hadn’t known of my whereabouts. Rushing in there like I was going to raid him for drugs I screamed out “Surrender” holding the gun to his back and sure enough, he done so. This was my little victory but sadly, again after my stint of heroism I was shot down like a cur and the game tied as we had run out of time.

Brave Men And Cowards

“They’re all wimps” one of the guys pointed out as we stood in the dead man’s corner eagerly waiting to join in the fray again. “Just because you last the full fifteen minutes doesn’t mean you won” he uttered, “It just means you lasted the full fifteen minutes”. Obviously there were people who preferred to sit back and hide as cover defense and then there were the diehards who just ran straight into the thick of battle.

The latter had been me for many of the earlier games but I wizened up and learnt to slow it down, be more wary. There was never a better case of being craven than when we had that game of ‘Terminator’. There was one fat Arabic type of guy who just had no balls at all. Just to look at him you would think he’s not one to mess with but from his dastard actions and his uncanny friendliness, I had seen him for who he was.

Picking up the flack jacket he kept hiding behind walls and in fact, he was the most fearful on the war field and yet, he should have been fearless. It came to the point where dead men were barking orders at him and telling everyone else where he was so that he would give up the privilege. However, apart from his apprehension, never was there a preferred memory than the one of Jett, Shawn and myself holding back to defend our flag.

Three Thieves Guard The Flag

Holding only around fifty bullets in my canister and half a canister left in my backpack, I filled it up and decided to take it easy for a game. Shawn had also run low on bullets and Jett had lost most of his due to his rubber band flicking off continuously through the game. Lending Jett some of my pellets and filling up his gun generously, we decided to stick back and give some cover defense to the flag so that we would rarely have to waste bullets.

Sitting ourselves down to have a rest and a goggle break we planned out strategy, to stick together like the three thieves of Baghdad. With the whistle sounding, there was no urgency shown by us and rather, walking a couple of steps forward to a large bush that sits in the middle of a forking road to the flag, Shawn and I crept into the crest of the bush where there was a half meter ditch dug into the ground.

In no direct line of danger, Shawn faced onto one side of the bush and I, with my back to him faced the other. Jett positioned himself in the bushes behind the flag just incase anyone decided to creep right around the danger. There was also a guy who had teamed up with us previously and had helped me in the final war. Across from our little position, he lay down in a marsh of twigs and leaves, covering him up nicely to any oncoming enemy who would cross our path.

Hand Signals In The Bush

Aligned as a unit in war, we also had a hand commanding system to which the basics of finger counting and pointing to the enemy would ensue. Creating the sense that we were in a guerilla war, I felt more in control with this planned abordinance. Shawn started shooting down his flank but soon found out that his gun had jammed up and the bullets weren’t even coming out. Therefore, turning to cover his position with him, I figured that Jett and this other guy would have the other area sussed out.

Trying to fix Shawn’s gun in the midst of the war was intense as we had to continually stay alert. Alike of an injured soldier, he told me to leave him behind hoping he could scare some people off with the falsities of his gun’s sound and with that, I found myself a new position deep in the bushes. Creeping around the corner of the little ditch where I was back to back with Shawn, I found an excellent hiding spot to which I had direct view of the flag.

Deep within a bush, the only way in without getting entangled was to crawl through and two meters into the hole the only direction I could possibly shoot was back out. Nevertheless, I could see the hand signals of Jett near the flag, some movement from the guy in the marsh and occasionally I would get a briefing from Shawn through the thick of the bush.

Waiting In The Ambush

Lying myself down with my gun firmly aimed at the flag I let out one shot to assure myself that my gun would do the job had there been someone breaking through our ranks. Hearing that the gun fire was getting closer, I knew that if one or two people stormed our little fortress of hidden players, they would surely get fucked up from every angle. The flag was covered from every conceivable angle and we’d made it so that there could only be one possible player shot from any attacking angle and for that player there would always be defensive player from one of our hidden snipers.

The flag itself had four guns firmly planted on it and as I lay in the bushes, poking my gun through the thicket of branches to my right, I looked out at the dirt path and thought to myself “This is the shit”. Prolonged in this defensive position for ten minutes, the anticipation to pop someone as they unsuspectingly walked past our little ambush was overwhelming. When the ref signaled that there was only one minute left of play before it was called off I figured that we would get one hopeful running for the flag in desperation creating an awareness within our group.

The guy in the marsh put his hand up towards me and in silence, lifted two fingers up and pointed to the major hut in our area. Knowing that there were two possible attackers sneaking up upon us to grab the flag, I sat tight and waited upon their sneaky entry. My heart started racing with eagerness to cap someone but sitting there deep in the bush with only my gun sticking out past the dense thicket, the sound of the whistle ending the game had ended our strategy.

Crawling out of my little area I grouped with Jett, Shawn and the other guy to which we all noted that was the best experience of the day so far. Nothing really topped our teamwork and the anticipation that made our mouths water to the call of fatalities from concealment, the ultimate camouflage.